NEW HAMPSHIRE CONVENTION.

[A friend has favored the editor with the following fragment, being the
only speech known to be preserved in the New Hampshire Convention on adopting
the federal Constitution of the United States.]

PAGE 7, SEC. 9th. "The migration or importation of such persons as any
of the states now existing shall think proper to admit, shall not be prohibited
by Congress prior to the year 1808; but a tax or duty may be imposed on such
importation, not exceeding ten dollars for each person."

The Hon. Mr. DOW, from Weare, spoke very sensibly and feelingly against this
paragraph.

Several members, on the other side, spoke in favor of it, with remarks on
what Mr. Dow had said; after which, the Hon. JOSHUA ATHERTON, from Amherst,
spoke as follows: —

Mr. President, I cannot be of the opinion of the honorable gentlemen who
last spoke, that this paragraph is either so useful or so inoffensive as they
seem to imagine, or that the objections to it are so totally void of
foundation. The idea that strikes those, who are opposed to this clause, so
disagreeably and so forcibly, is, hereby it is conceived (if we ratify the
Constitution) that we become consenters to, and partakers in, the
sin and guilt of this abominable traffic, at least for a certain period,
without any positive stipulation that it should even then be brought to an end.
We do not behold in it that valuable acquisition so much boasted of by the
honorable member from Portsmouth, "that an end is then to be put to
slavery." Congress may be as much, or more, puzzled to put a stop to
it then, than we are now. The clause has not secured its abolition.

We do not think ourselves under any obligation to perform works of
supererogation in the reformation of mankind; we do not esteem ourselves under
any necessity to go to Spain or Italy to suppress the inquisition of those
countries; or of making a journey to the Carolinas to abolish the detestable
custom of enslaving the Africans; but, sir, we will not lend the aid of our
ratification to this cruel and inhuman merchandise, not even for a day. There
is a great distinction in not taking a part in the most barbarous violation of
the sacred laws of God and humanity, and our becoming guaranties for its
exercise for a term of years. Yes, sir, it is our full purpose to wash our
hands clear of it; and, however unconcerned spectators we may remain of such
predatory infractions of the laws of our nature, however unfeelingly we may
subscribe to the ratification of manstealing, with all its baneful
consequences, yet I cannot but believe, in justice to human nature, that, if we
reserve the consideration, and bring this claimed power somewhat nearer to our
own doors, we shall form a more equitable opinion of its claim to this
ratification. Let us figure to ourselves a company of these manstealers, well
equipped for the enterprise, arriving on our coast. They seize and carry off
the whole or a part of the inhabitants of the town of Exeter. Parents are
taken, and children left; or possibly they may be so fortunate as to have a
whole family taken and carried off together by these relentless robbers. What
must be their feelings in the hands of their new and arbitrary masters? Dragged
at once from every thing they held dear to them — stripped of every
comfort of life, like beasts of prey — they are hurried on a loathsome and
distressing voyage to the coast of Africa, or some other quarter of the globe,
where the greatest price may await them; and here, if any thing can be added to
their miseries, comes on the heart-breaking scene! A parent is sold to one, a
son to another, and a daughter to a third! Brother is cleft from brother,
sister from sister, and parents from their darling offspring! Broken with every
distress that human nature can feel, and bedewed with tears of anguish, they
are dragged into the last stage of depression and slavery, never, never to
behold the faces of one another again! The scene is too affecting. I have not
fortitude to pursue the subject!

Declaration of Ratification
by the New Hampshire Ratification Convention: Dec. 12, 1787